From Fordism to neoconservatism : free trade and Canadian industrial policy in an era of globalism /

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Abstract

Nothing today affects the lives of people in countries throughout
the industrialized and developing world as much as international
trade. Nowhere is this more true than in Canada. Canada's
involvement in international trade has a long history dating back
to 1854 when it was a British colony.
As a major trading country, Canada has always adopted a proactive
industrial policy which has been largely responsible for its
relative economic prosperi ty. But, wi th businesses now free to
invest and divest under the terms of the CUFTA and the NAFTA, the
most fundamental concerns for Canadians, in a borderless world, are
what powers will the Canadian government have to shape industrial
policy, and to what extent can Canada continue as a viable nationstate
if it can no longer control its national economy? These are
important concerns because, in world without borders, the
adjustment process becomes more volatile and more difficult to
manage.
The CUFTA and the NAFTA not only create the rules for
conducting trade, but they also establish a set of new rules for
the Canadian government that will diminish its power. As a member
of a new North American trading bloc, Canada will find itself
subject to a set of forces requiring analysis beyond participation
in a conventional free trade area. Because many of the traditional
levers of government will now be subject to external control
imposed by these agreements, Canada will not be able to mount
certain policies in the future that it has relied on in the past.
This reality limits the pro-active role of the Canadian state to
use policies and programmes for the country's immediate national
development.
What this thesis attempts is an examination of the evolution
of Canadian industrial policy, in effect, the transi tion from
Fordism to Neoconservatism, and an assessment of Canada's future
as a nation-state as it tries to find security and improved access
in a free trade arrangement. Unless Canada takes steps to
neutralize the asymmetry of power between itself and the United
States through adjustment programmes, it is the contention of this
thesis that its economic future is anything but stable.